Whole Foods is facing a social media backlash after a new restaurant called Yellow Fever opened in its new 365 store in Long Beach, California.The grocery chain announced the restaurant opening last week on Twitter. Yellow Fever is an independent company that partnered with Whole Foods to open in its store, People reports.Twitter users were quick to call the name racist and problematic. "Great name. Foresee no problems here, with the name," one user said."Is there no one in your corporate cocoon to tell you what a toxic idea this racist name was?" another person asked. Yellow Fever is co-founded by executive chef Kelly Kim, who is Korean-American. She explained the thought process behind the name in a 2017 interview with Next Shark.“When we finally came up with the concept, all the names we thought of just plain sucked. Buzzwords like ‘traditional’, ‘bamboo’, ‘lotus’, and ‘golden’ weren’t memorable,” she said. “One night, we just said ‘Yellow Fever!’ and it worked. It’s tongue-in-cheek, kind of shocking, and it’s not exclusive — you can fit all Asian cultures under one roof with a name like this. We just decided to go for it.”In an interview with the Washington Post, Kim further defended the restaurant name. She said the term implies "an attraction or affinity of Asian people or Asian things."“I never took it to a have deeper meaning. … It’s a little tongue in cheek, but I never saw it as offensive or racist or anti-feminist,” she said. “We’re just a small business. Now all of a sudden people are bashing on us." Yellow Fever has two other locations in California. “Yellow Fever celebrates all things Asian: the food, the culture and the people and our menu reflects that featuring cuisine from Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Hawaii. We have been a proud Asian, female-owned business since our founding over four and a half years ago in Torrance, California,” Yellow Fever told People in a statement.

Long Beach, Calif. —

Whole Foods is facing a social media backlash after a new restaurant called Yellow Fever opened in its new 365 store in Long Beach, California.

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The grocery chain announced the restaurant opening last week on Twitter. Yellow Fever is an independent company that partnered with Whole Foods to open in its store, People reports.

"Is there no one in your corporate cocoon to tell you what a toxic idea this racist name was?" another person asked.

Yellow Fever is co-founded by executive chef Kelly Kim, who is Korean-American. She explained the thought process behind the name in a 2017 interview with Next Shark.

“When we finally came up with the concept, all the names we thought of just plain sucked. Buzzwords like ‘traditional’, ‘bamboo’, ‘lotus’, and ‘golden’ weren’t memorable,” she said. “One night, we just said ‘Yellow Fever!’ and it worked. It’s tongue-in-cheek, kind of shocking, and it’s not exclusive — you can fit all Asian cultures under one roof with a name like this. We just decided to go for it.”

In an interview with the Washington Post, Kim further defended the restaurant name. She said the term implies "an attraction or affinity of Asian people or Asian things."

“I never took it to a have deeper meaning. … It’s a little tongue in cheek, but I never saw it as offensive or racist or anti-feminist,” she said. “We’re just a small business. Now all of a sudden people are bashing on us."

Yellow Fever has two other locations in California.

“Yellow Fever celebrates all things Asian: the food, the culture and the people and our menu reflects that featuring cuisine from Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Hawaii. We have been a proud Asian, female-owned business since our founding over four and a half years ago in Torrance, California,” Yellow Fever told People in a statement.